myGPcloud – Step 5: Setting up Inventory and Purchase Order

I’ve been really impressed so far in setting up the system. The performance is great and the default setup is enough to get things going fairly easily. I did noticed my user wasn’t added automatically to the DEFAULTUSER modified reports and forms security. You may want to add that setting to your user ID in Microsoft Dynamics GP>>Tools>>Setup>>System>>User Security.

I’ve heard a lot of buzz from the academic community wanting to use myGPcloud for classroom instruction. The Dynamics Academic Alliance at Microsoft gives universities freebie licenses to get them hooked on their software and Dynamics GP is no exception. I’m actually using myGPcloud in my classroom where I teach at a local community college. If you’re a college or university myGPcloud is the way to go.

Step 5 – Setting up Inventory and Purchase Order

Looks like we are to the heavy lifting. Setting up inventory and Purchasing isn’t too difficult but there are a lot of things to consider. Whether or not the company has inventory items stocked in a warehouse or if there’s just a list of service items billed to clients, setting up these modules correctly is critical to the future usage.

Inventory setup

I don’t see anything regarding this. Maybe this will come with version 2 but you really should do some thinking here. Microsoft Dynamics GP>>Tools>>Setup>>Inventory>>Inventory Control.

The default Decimal Places and Segment ID for Sites should be identified here. When you select a Segment ID for Sites at this point you are stuck with using that segment forever. That is used to link posting account defaults for different sites.

If you don’t enter a segment ID here you will get this error when trying to set up different sites.

Skip if you don’t want to go cross eyed (or are not an accountant):

For example regarding posting account defaults, if you want COGS and Revenue to have different posting accounts for each site you should select this segment of your chart of account to be the determining factor. I.E. Segment 2 has all your divisions of 000, 100, 200, 300, etc. When entering transactions to the site the posting accounts will have the 000-4000-000, 100-4000-000, etc. variable.

Unit of Measure

The documentation looks good. I would mention the setups done in inventory are difficult to change to say the least. Think the setups through and how the business may like to do things in the future. I’d consider using the term “each” like it shows in the documentation as a base. Another silly thing in Dynamics GP is this Unit of Measure is case sensitive. If you don’t want to capitalize EACH each time you could make it all lower case or at least proper case. This will be defaulted in pricing setup so it’s not that big of a deal.

Side story: One of our clients called and wanted to change the base unit of measure. They had the unit of measure schedule set up in “Cases” of 12, 24, etc. They now wanted to take a few items from each case and create a variety case. Since the items were not inventories in a “Each” (meaning 1 unit) fashion we had to totally reconfigure the system to meet their current needs.

Creating a Site

The documentation shows the site screen I showed you above. It’s not required to set things up with different sites so if you don’t have more than one location you may want to set it like the documentation says. I try to make things too difficult some times.

Item Class Setup

I agree with setting up a default class. I also usually set up all the different types of inventory items I have as well. It speeds up entering new items a lot (unless you import items and then it doesn’t really matter).

Items

Another version 2 thing. Items don’t have a bolded heading so I didn’t realize I was onto something else. Picky me.

I usually do as the documentation says and use the GO TO button on the Item Maintenance window. This gives all the steps needed to get through setting up an item.

Price List setup

I set up a default price so I don’t have to enter the price manually each time. My hugs are expe
nsive as you can see.

Site setup

Unless you do what I say in the above in inventory control, site setup will not be available.

Purchasing setup

Nothing much to say here. What unit are you purchasing the product in.

Purchase Order Processing Setup

I’d say you need to go to the POP setup window first. Microsoft Dynamics GP>>Tools>>Setup>>Purchasing>>Purchase Order Processing. There are a few options on this window that may apply.

The documentation goes through this ok but I’d suggest some good night time reading by looking at the POP manual if there are any questions.

Click on the ? at the top right and choose printable manuals. I better make that clearer on my next blog. That’s where you find all the printable manuals for GP.

Here’s my PO for my hugs.

And here’s my invoicing of that PO. It should be easy but there are a lot of issues that come up in this process. I’d contact your partner if things are not clear on this front after reading the user guide.

For example, the distributions cannot be changed in the receivings summary window. The distributions need to be changed on the line item. I circled it in the above screen.

Summary

This is a big step in Dynamics. Inventory effects many modules and Purchasing is the basis for any distribution type company.

I’d spend some time reading the printable manual as a night time story. You might learn something. And if not you’ll surly fall to sleep soundly.